Governor Dan McKee will nominate Providence City Council President Sabina Matos to become the next lieutenant governor of Rhode Island Wednesday morning, according to reports from The Boston Globe and WPRI 12.
A media advisory sent to Newport Buzz said McKee’s announcement is scheduled for 10am Wednesday outside the Rhode Island State House.
Matos, 47, was elected Providence City Council President in January 2019, the first Latina to hold the position in the city’s history. She was first elected to the Providence City Council in 2010 as Councilwoman for Ward 15, which covers Olneyville as well as parts of the Silver Lake and Valley neighborhoods.
In 2015, Matos became the first Latina elected as Council President Pro Tempore in Providence’s history and served in that role until her election as Council President.
Matos was born in the province of Barahona in the Dominican Republic. In April 1994, she moved to the United States, first arriving in New York City, where she lived for a short time before moving to Providence with her family.
Council President Matos graduated from Rhode Island College in May of 2001 with a BA in Communications and Public Relations. She is also a graduate of the Latina Leadership Institute and Leadership for a Future.
Council President Matos has served as the President of the ECAS-Educational Center for the Arts and Sciences, and the RI Latino Civic Fund – The Latina Leadership Training, and the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee. She has served as the Board Secretary of the Olneyville Housing Corporation and served on the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Council and Latino Policy Institute boards. She has also been a member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association. She is a founding member of LUCHA-Latina’s United for Change, and is a graduate of the Leadership for a Future program.
Council President Matos lives in Olneyville with her husband, Patrick Ward, and their two children, Diego and Annemarie.
The other finalists for the job were former Central Falls Mayor James Diossa, State Senator Louis DiPalma of Middletown, Rhode Island Democratic Party Treasurer Elizabeth Beretta-Perik, and State Representative Grace Diaz of Providence.
The Lt. Governor’s seat has been vacant since McKee became governor after President Joe Biden tapped then Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as his Commerce Secretary earlier this month.
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